Last week, I picked up my daughter, Julia, after her last final. Yesterday, Ben arrived home. They have completed their first semesters at university. We are looking forward to potato latkes and champagne toasts with their older brothers and extended family, including their soon-to-be 1 year old cousin and octogenarian grandparents. This time of year […]

In 2006, Harvard Professor Richard Frank and Columbia Professor Sherry Glied published Better But Not Well. Taking into consideration economics, treatment, living standards, rights, and stigma, they came to the conclusion that wellbeing improved for people with mental illness in the latter half of the 20th century in the US. However, they also cautioned that […]

John Glenn, American Hero, departed this earth one last time this week. His life followed the story line of the classic Hero’s Journey – a classic three-part narrative where the individual sets out on an adventure into something unknown, faces a decisive challenge or set of challenges and achieves victory, and transformed by the experience returns home […]

Newspaper headlines and breaking news on CNN are dominated by the drama of crisis and disaster. When we rely on this coverage to tell the story of mental illness, we are led to believe that the majority of people with mental disorders are violent, dangerous and sleeping on church steps. But nothing could be further […]

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday, and from the time I was a little girl, the day started with big brass marching bands, acrobats, floats from the latest Broadway shows, and oversized balloons of Charlie Brown, Mickey Mouse and other imaginary characters that marched through New York in the Macy’s Day Parade. So you can […]

Last night, as I was having dinner with several dear friends and members of our Global Mental Health Program’s International Advisory Board, the conversation found its way to the topic of mental illness. It is true that we do not have ready cures for everyone who presents with a mental health problem. But much to […]

I am going to just put it out there. The election tally did not end the way I imagined, and the result has rocked my world. I am joined by about half of America, and for the other half things have unfolded as they hoped. But virtually all the polls got it wrong – even Nate […]

“She is still really sick; they can’t send her home…,” a desperate mom said to me by phone last week. Her daughter has anorexia nervosa. She has spent four days in inpatient treatment. Now her insurance company was ready to send her home. At 5’5″, this 17-year-old girl weighed 72 lbs and was still highly […]

This week, John Oliver featured Opioid addiction on his Emmy Award winning, Last Week Tonight. The story, which got lots of Twitter love, brought to light how prescribing practices and pharmaceutical advertising have contributed to the current opioid epidemic. Pharmaceutical companies have paid more than $634 million in damages for misleading marketing. But the opioid […]

In the days after The Washington Post released audio of a United States presidential candidate boasting about behavior that most agree went far beyond “locker room talk,” millions of sexual assault survivors have been sharing their stories – 27 million in the first three days. Their message? #NotOkay. Sexual violence robs us all – men and […]